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My terrifying Nightmare in India

It was a good start to the beginning of a brand
new month, I just finished having fun
celebrating the Diwali festival with my
colleagues at the office and I was given two
days off work which I was really grateful
because it has been a pretty hectic October. I
and six other friends (all foreigners) of mine
decided to embark on a 12 hours bus trip from
Mumbai to Goa. I never knew I was going to
have a nightmare experience there.
We arrived at Goa the next day (2 nd
November), we settled in our hotel and rested
for a few hours before stepping on to the
beach. I met a young 15 year old bartender, he
asked me where I am from and after I told him,
he asked if I knew about the fight between the
locals, the Police and Nigerians which I said
no.
He brought me a page of the newspaper
(Herald Goa) where the story was covered. He
informed me that I was the only Nigerian
around and there was a police search on-going
for Nigerians. I was pretty uncomfortable and a
bit scared but I was there already so I hoped
for the best.
Later that night, my friends and I all went out
to an open bar. I felt so uncomfortable because
everyone was staring from the outside but I felt
a little bit better when I saw a black guy with
dreadlocks. I noticed he was not so bothered
and he was well known.
So that made me the only unknown black man
on the street with over 3000 Indians plus
foreigners. A few minutes later, the two
policemen came on a motor bike and started
talking to people in the bar. The bartender
came up to me and asked me where I was
from. I didn’t understand why he was asking
(so as all Nigerians do) I replied him with a
question; I asked him why he was asking. He
said that the policemen asked everyone around.
I just ignored him because I could not claim
being from another country.
I guess the policemen couldn’t come to me
because I was surrounded by foreigners so
maybe they thought I was not a Nigerian.
But my tension increased so much when a man
walked up to me while I was standing outside
the bar with my Greek friend. He said: Yeah
man, what’s up? (Stretching out his hand to
shake me), then he came very close to me and
said: with all due respect, a black guy like me
was killed yesterday (i.e. illustrating the
situation to me by touching my neck with his
fingers folded like a gun).
Then, he started begging me for drugs and he
was mentioning on sort of names; like “do I
know this guy, do I know this guy”. So I told
him that not every black guy you see, sell or do
drugs. Immediately, I told my friends that the
environment was not safe for me again.
We were about leaving Goa, and then we took a
taxi to Mapusa Bus Park. Unfortunately for me,
I was standing 20 metres away from a banner
with inscription – Say no to Nigerian, Say no
to drugs, in the midst of over 1000 Indians; all
eyes were on me.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone so nobody came to me;
after waiting for about two hours, we finally got
on the bus heading to Mumbai. After traveling
for 50km, suddenly, the bus driver stopped the
bus at the Police Checkpoint in Patradevi (i.e.
Goa’s border).
Immediately, the three armed policemen came
in and told me to get out; they came in to bus
to look for me because I guessed someone had
tipped them. Even without asking where I am
from, they just started harassing me. What
surprised me was that, they didn’t ask the other
foreigners for their passports or where they are
from. They asked me if I had been arrested
before. Fortunately for me, my boss who is
Indian and my friends who are foreigners came
to my rescue. I would have been victimized or
even jailed because I am a Nigerian.
From this experience and from many more, it is
now obvious more than ever before that the
discrimination against Nigerians is getting too
much especially in some parts of the world and
things are going out of hands.
I am calling on those in authority to intervene
with a view to stop this ugly trend. Let me also
use this medium to reach out to my fellow
Nigerians in diaspora to imbibe good culture of
behaving themselves properly wherever they
find themselves.
Odundun writes from India


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Disclaimer:comments are opinions of my readers alone and does not represent cLOUDig views. contact us through cloudigblog@gmail.com, @cloudigblog on twitter or call 08062898177.

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